Inquirer columnist elected ISH member

Inquirer health columnist Dr. Rafael Castillo was elected to a four-year term as a member of the governing council of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) during its recent four-day biennial congress in Beijing.

ISH members from more than 100 countries elect members of the governing council. Castillo was its first Southeast Asian member.

More than 1,000 studies were presented in the Beijing congress prepared by a committee headed by Prof. Thomas Unger, of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. The next congress will be held in Glasgow in 2020.

Castillo is past president of the Philippine Heart Association-Philippine College of Cardiology, Asian Pacific Society of Hypertension and Philippine Society of Hypertension.

He has been writing the column “Medical Files” for the Inquirer for almost 18 years. It appears in the Lifestyle Wellness section every Tuesday.

The 52-year-old ISH, which is based in the United Kingdom, is composed of world-renowned scientists and clinicians.

As many as 10.5 million people die yearly of hypertension-related complications, said Prof. Neil Poulter.